Udhayan Chandran asked: Can India develop and implement a strategy to strike hard at Pakistan's vulnerable border outposts in retaliation of Pakistan abetted terror strikes and border ceasefire violations?

Vivek Chadha replies: The question indicates that India does not have a strategy to deal with Pakistani outposts, as part of the overall border management policy of the army/paramilitary/government. Therefore, the issue needs to be placed in the right perspective.

First, India does not have a policy of pre-emptive strikes against Pakistan’s defensive positions. Any action that is initiated by India is in response to Pakistan’s ceasefire violations from posts on the borders. This is relevant both to the Line of Control (LoC), where primarily the army is deployed, as well as the international border (IB), where the Border Security Force (BSF) is located. Therefore, while India is not the aggressor, there is a clear policy laid down, with adequate decentralisation of powers to the level of subordinate commanders, even as control is maintained over possible escalation.

Second, India has a robust deployment both on the LoC and the IB to stop cross border infiltration. However, Indian forces do not retaliate against the Pakistani posts unless they are directly linked or involved in support of infiltration through fire of weapons.

Third, the choice of responding to the terrorist related incidents supported by the Pakistani forces on the borders as well as on the IB is left to the armed forces to decide. They plan in their wisdom and according to a well defined strategy target the involved posts in order to ensure that a suitable response is delivered for necessary effect.

Fourth, as events of the last few months would have indicated, India has both the will and the capacity to respond to the Pakistani forces in the language they understand and with greater intensity than they can, clearly sending a message that even as India is not an aggressor it is well capable of retaliating in a robust manner.

Therefore, while it is not India’s policy to initiate pre-emptive military action, adequate measures have been put in place to respond to any aggression from the Pakistani posts or action by the terrorists or combination of both.

Posted on January 05, 2015